The F Dominant 7th Piano Chord:

There are many different ways to play the F7 piano chord. Press either of the "rotate notes" buttons to see different ways of voicing the F7 piano chord. Press either of the "change octave" buttons to see the F7 piano chord in different octaves. In the diagram below, you will only find the right hand notes. The bass (left hand note) is simply the root of the chord (F). If you listen while the chord plays, you can hear that the bass note stays consistant while the top notes are changing.

F dominant 7th

Major Third

The major third of a F dominant 7th piano chord (A) is up 4 half-steps from the root (F).

To find the major third:

Skip three half-steps up from the root (F) and land on the fourth half-step (A).

Start on:

The root of the chord (F)

Skip three half-steps:

Gb

G

Ab

And land on the fourth half-step:

the major third of the chord (A)

The Minor Seventh

The minor seventh (bottom note shown in red) is down two half-steps from the root. Skip one key down (to the left) from the root, F to find the minor seventh (Eb).

If you start on F, skip E and land on Eb.

Related Scale:

The F Mixolydian Scale

root

second

third

fourth

fifth

sixth

seventh

octave

F

G

A

Bb

C

D

Eb

F

Seventh chords are chords that are built with four notes from the scale: the root, third, fifth and seventh. Notice that you just skip every other note to create seventh chords. I think an easier way to think of them is to think of the seventh not as the fourth note away from the root (to the right), but rather right next to the root in the next octave lower. Because the notes repeat as you move up and down the piano, the seventh (Eb) is not just the seventh note up from F in the F mixolydian scale, as you move from left to right on the piano, but it's also the note next to it in the scale if you are moving from right to left. If you look at the diagram at the top of the page, you'll see that I put the seventh below the third, and I leave out the fifth.

Another great short-cut for seventh chords: since the fifth is optional, you can think of seventh chords as cluster of notes close together: the seventh, root (played down an octave or two in the left hand) and the third. The biggest advantage is the relationship between the seventh and the root is much easier to understand if you think down from the root (to the left) rather than up to the root (to the right), since the distance is only a second, instead of a seventh.

Triads:

Major - Root, M3, 5 (F, A and C)

minor - Root, m3, 5 (F, Ab and C)

Augmented (Aug) - Root, M3, A5 (F, A and Db)

diminished (dim) - Root, m3, d5 (F, Ab and B)

Seventh Chords:

7 - Root, M3, 5, m7 (F, A, C and Eb)

M7 - Root, M3, 5, M7 (F, A, C and E)

m7 - Root, m3, 5, m7 (F, Ab, C and Eb)

dim7 - Root, m3, d5, d7 (F, Ab, B and D)

half dim7 (same as "m7b5") - Root, m3, flat 5, m7 (F, Ab, B and Eb)

You can see how important a good grasp of intervals can be to understanding chord structure and theory. Luckily, if you are shaky on your intervals, you can practice with my musical interval trainer.

My unique method for finding piano chords (especially 7th chords). I call it a "three finger method" because I simplify the chords down to three notes. These are sometimes called "shell voicings", and I have my own unique tricks for helping you to visualize them on the piano. This book covers the fundamentals, and it suitable for someone who has no musical experience, or only a basic knowledge of piano chords.

My third book after the two "speed read" books. In this book I wanted to explore some of the more difficult concepts when reading from a fake book, in fact I spend 60 pages on diminished and diminished 7th chords. I also create mind-bending patterns to help you practice good voice leading and common chord patterns when reading from a fake book. It's all annotated with notes underneath the staff, in my trademark "make it easy" style. This book begins with easy concepts, introducing piano chords in a slightly different way than the first two books, and then it moves on to more advanced concepts. This book is also geared towards those who learn by repetition rather than theory. My other two books require you to do more thinking than this book does. This book uses a "learn by example" style.